Start with teachers

Project Overview

Goal

To create social impact (grassroots style) by applying UX Design to innovating the current Public Education system.

Problem

Teachers are not getting enough financial and emotional support, negatively impacting their teaching methods. Therefore, students are not getting the best education that they can.

Solution

To design a mobile application that allows anyone to donate school supplies to teachers; securing them financially, supporting them emotionally, and bettering their classroom environment. Teachers have an account to create classroom wishlists, and donors have an account to access wishlists, and donate supplies.

Tools

Whiteboard & pen, Mybalsamiq, Sketch, Invision, Keynote, Omnigraffle

Project Duration

2 Weeks

The Prototype

Research

What could three UX Designers with no teaching experience do to make change in the public education system?

To find out, we held in-depth interviews with five public elementary school teachers in LA, and surveyed 20 other people (teachers and "non-teachers").

Surveys

Our goals for the survey were to find the source of the problem, leading us to our solutions.

The results

Another crucial factor in determining our actionable plan, were the results of our Comparative Analysis.

Comparative Analysis

Our goal in this step of our research process was to find out howthe United States differed from other education systems across the globe, andwhy. We found that the difference in value placed on teachers was a major factor between leading countries in education, versus the United States.

From Problems to Solutions

After thoroughly analyzing our research, we carefully came up with the source of the problem, so we could eventually tackle it by creating solutions; consisting of an actionable plan.

The Problem

From our research, surveys & interviews, we found that teachers feel undervalued from three different outlets:

(1) The US Government: The majority of teachers feel they are underpaid for the amount of hours they work, and for the amount of value they contribute to their students.

(2) Principal: Many teachers feel discouraged as there are constraints when it comes to creative teaching methods, due to standardized testing.

(3) Community: Teachers feel underappreciated by their community and believe society is not aware of the hardships teachers face. They would like their communities to create awareness to bring support.

The result of teachers feeling underfunded, underpaid and undervalued is:

Who and What did we design for?

Persona

Our surveys & research led us to our persona creation. Our persona, "Teacher Tasha", is a 25 year old teacher with just a couple of years of experience, but endless passion. Her salary is $42,000, leaving her budget tight while she is paying student loans from her studies and supporting herself entirely.

Scenario & Painpoints

Tasha Summers is extremely passionate, and loves to explore creative teaching methods. She found that her students excel most when their lessons are project-based and collaborative. Tasha's classroom needs a variety of supplies in order for her to teach using this method.

Tasha's school is giving her the bare minimum of classroom supplies, and if she really wants to impact her students, she will have to pay out-of-pocket.

Tasha paid $3,000 out-of-pocket for supplies last year. However, this year she is extra tight on money. She cannot afford to shop for her class this year. Her school is not supplying her classroom with what they need, so she needs a solution.

Her principal notifies the faculty about the "#StartWithTeachers" app. She opens it, and her user flow begins.

User Flow

IMAGE EXPLAINED:

Teacher Tasha opens the "Start With Teachers" mobile app for the first time. She signs up for an account. Although she has the option to create her profile later, she chooses to do it now. She adds a photo & a teacher summary. She then receives her access code to send to potential donors, so her class is easy to find.

She hits the homepage, and has the option to browse supplies in multiple ways. She knows that her students need more wet markers, so she finds them using the "scan barcode" feature (by scanning the barcode of her existing item, it takes her to the item). She chooses the quantity, and tells her donors why they will be useful to her classroom. She then recieves a confirmation, views her wishlist, and then goes back to browse.

Tasha wants to learn more about SWT, so she clicks on settings, and then "about". She is excited and immediately then checks for her donations. Not to her surprise, she doesn't have any yet (as it's only been one minute), but when she does the app will notify her!

The Solution:Tasha's painpoints are solved when she has the ability to create a classroom wishlist, and non-teachers can donate supplies to her class. This supports her financially and emotionally.

Getting There Through Testing

We didn't get to the higher-fidelity prototype that easily! We started out by testing our low-fidelity prototype in MyBalsamiq. Through testing, we made iterations to make the app as user friendly as possible.

Deliverables & Next Steps

Through the process of research, testing and sketching, my team delivered a high fidelity, clickable prototype for a mobile application. All of the deliverables were thought of and created from scratch; from the initial research, to creating the concept, to the design, and in the end: the clickable prototype.

Eventually, we would like to continue researching, testing, and to expand our clickable flows. As of now, our user has limited flows with presentable features. The next steps would be to enhance the rest of our features, test them, and then make them function.

The donor login is also a crucial next step to consider for the function of this application. For the donors, we presume a website would be a better solution than a mobile application, as it is not something they would necessarily need phone-handy. (However, that is something we'll find out for sure with testing!).

A Note From Me

I am especially proud and excited about this project, because of the connection we developed towards the cause. Previous to this project, I had never really considered the needs of teachers, nore thought about our public education system's problems. Once the findings of this project were revealed and my team created something tangible that could truly make a difference, we decided we should make a difference.

Katrina Dargel, John Pak, and I would like to make this come alive. Our next step is to interview leaders of local public schools, and see where we can go from there.

If you or anyone you know (teachers or non-teachers) would like to see #StartWithTeachers come alive, feel free to message me with questions or comments.